From Isaac Anumihe, Abuja
As civil servants anxiously await the new minimum wage, Federal Government, yesterday, assured workers that it would ensure smooth payment of the new salary.
Chairman of National Salaries Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC), Ekpo Nta, made the clarification when he played host to the Executive Committee of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) on a courtesy visit led by their Chairman, Sir Samuel Adewale.
The chairman clarified that increases in allowances for serving officers cannot also be interpreted as increases in salaries adding that
the commission had forwarded a report to the government in May 2023, on the harmonisation of pensions for consideration after synthesising inputs from relevant stakeholders including pension unions and the availability of funds.
On the complaints of non-receipt of the payment of recently-approved palliatives, the NSIWC Chairman noted that the relevant organs of government were addressing the issues.
The chairman also advised the union to negotiate with Friendly Health Maintenance Organisations to provide affordable health insurance covers for their members after explaining how they can benefit from such services.
In a statement, Head, Press Unit, Emmanuel Njoku, said that the chairman urged the senior citizens, to in future, avail themselves of having scheduled free online zoom meetings with him, instead of embarking on expensive and hazardous trips from all over the country given their ages.
Earlier, the Chairman, Committee on pension, Elder Gabriel Oladele had urged the chairman to intervene on the issues of wrong computations of their consequential adjustments, and also the unreasonable deductions from their pensions after decades of enjoying same.